FERNANDEZ V. COMELEC (ELECTION)

The Court dismisses the instant petition.

Considering that the term of the contested office has already expired, the petition has been rendered moot and academic.
RA 9164 provides that the term of the SK officials elected in the 15 July 2002 synchronized barangay and SK elections shall be 3 years, commencing from 15 August 2002, and ending at noon on 30 November 2005. RA 9340 however, amended said law and reset the barangay elections to October 2007, thereby extending the term of those elected in 2002 up to noon of November 2007. On the latter date, therefore, the term of the barangay and SK officials elected in 2002 expired. It is thus an exercise in futility for the Court to indulge itself in a review of the records and in an academic discussion of the applicable legal principles to determine who really won the said elections because whatever judgment is reached, the same can no longer have any practical legal effect or in the nature of things, can no longer be enforced.

As to the issue of jurisdiction, the 1987 Constitution vests in the COMELEC appellate jurisdiction over all contests involving elective barangay officials decided by trial courts of limited jurisdiction. Construed in relation to the provision of RA 7160 that includes in the enumeration of barangay officials the SK chairman, the constitutional provision indeed sanctions the appellate review by the COMELEC of election protests involving the position of the SK chairman, as in the instant case. Hence, we find nothing improper in the COMELEC's assumption of jurisdiction over respondent's appeal.